She says it was her idea to buy the lottery ticket. She paid for it with her last dollar. And her boyfriend even credited her good luck when they raked in $7 million.

They bought a house together. They took two vacations. He gave her an engagement ring. Then a few weeks later, Lisette Rivera maintains in a lawsuit, he walked out on her and took the money with him.Under lottery rules, a prize can be paid to only one person, and Patrick McKenna's name is listed on the winner's form. But Rivera believes she is entitled to half of the remaining annual installments of $334,175.

It hasn't been the luckiest of months for McKenna, 27. On March 6, he drew a one-to-three-year prison sentence for violating parole after his conviction for driving the wrong way down a one-way street while intoxicated.

In a lawsuit filed last week in state court, Rivera blames the bottle for their breakup. She said McKenna was drinking more and appeared to be using drugs.

On Nov. 16, 1994, he told her he was going out for firewood but drove off instead. She said she learned later he had skipped off to the Caribbean with an old girlfriend.

View Comments

They met several times after that. Once, he gave her $10,000 and promised to come to a financial arrangement with her but never did, she said. Her lawsuit also names the state Lottery Division.

"We are obliged by law to pay one individual or legal entity," the division's executive deputy director, Russell Gladieux, said Saturday. "It's entirely up to the litigants in court to establish who is the prize owner. We don't take a position on the merits of the case."

Rivera, a hair stylist in suburban Rochester, said she started dating McKenna in late 1993 and he moved in with her and her daughter in May 1994 when he lost his construction job. She had never played the lottery before when her boss suggested she buy a ticket in August 1994, she said.

That night, she and McKenna agreed to buy a ticket when they went shopping for groceries. While she went to a money machine at the store, McKenna bought a ticket with the last dollar in her pocket, she said.

Join the Conversation
Looking for comments?
Find comments in their new home! Click the buttons at the top or within the article to view them — or use the button below for quick access.